Atlanta mayor defends using emergency lanes in jam
Baku, February 4 (AZERTAC). Atlanta`s mayor is defending his use of emergency lanes at the height of Tuesday`s icy traffic jam so he could do an interview at The Weather Channel`s studios.
Mayor Kasim Reed`s spokesman Carlos Campos said Saturday that he, Reed and police officers normally assigned to the mayor traveled in two cars equipped with blue lights to reach the station`s suburban Atlanta headquarters.
It happened early Tuesday evening on Interstate 75, at a time when emergency responders were trying to help the thousands of motorists stranded on the jammed highway.
The mayor`s use of emergency lanes was first reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The action has sparked anger from motorists who tried to stay warm in their cars or abandoned them to seek shelter in businesses along I-75 and other freeways around metro Atlanta.
Campos said they believed that communicating to the largest possible audience during the crisis was important, and an interview with The Weather Channel was a way to accomplish that.
He recounted details of the journey for the AP on Saturday, saying that he and the mayor traveled in separate cars with Campos arriving at The Weather Channel early to make preparations for the interview. He said they used Interstate 75 — one of the interstates hit hardest by the ice storm — to reach the network about 12 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta, just outside the city limits in Cobb County.
Campos recalls seeing a Georgia State Patrol car and a HERO unit — a specially designed truck used to help stranded motorists. He said his car was able to get around them because both of those vehicles were in a "gore" area — the triangle-shaped areas where roads split.
Albertson`s trek from Atlanta`s Perimeter to his home in Woodstock took more than seven hours Tuesday. Rafael Garcia was among drivers trying to stay warm in the massive traffic jams on I-75 when the mayor passed by. By that time, Garcia had been on the road four hours and would have eight to go before arriving home to Woodstock.
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